GROW Session 3 invited participants to slowly reconnect with the body and recognize that grief, stress, and emotional experiences are not only carried in the mind, but often held within the body as well.
Sometimes, loss, overwhelm, or unresolved experiences stay with us through tension in the shoulders, tightness in the chest, exhaustion, numbness, restlessness, or a body that struggles to fully relax.
This session became a gentle space to pause and listen again.
Because often, the body carries stories that were never fully spoken.
The Body as a Place That Remembers
In trauma-informed and somatic approaches, the body is understood as something deeply connected to emotional experience. Emotions and stressful experiences that are not fully processed can continue living in the nervous system and body sensations.
This is why emotional experiences sometimes show up physically:
through shallow breathing,
muscle tension,
fatigue,
difficulty staying still,
or feeling emotionally disconnected from ourselves.
Session 3 invited participants to approach these experiences with more curiosity and softness rather than judgment.
Not to “fix” themselves immediately, but to slowly build awareness of what the body may have been trying to communicate all along.
This understanding is also supported by emerging research around body memory and embodied trauma. A review published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews discusses how past bodily experiences including fear, stress, pain, and emotional overwhelm—can remain stored as implicit body memories that continue influencing emotions, behavior, and bodily responses long after the experience itself has passed.
Through Session 3, GROW invited participants to slowly reconnect with this awareness:
that sometimes, before we can explain what we feel, the body has already been speaking quietly for a long time.
A Space to Slowly Listen Again
This session was accompanied by Sati, a movement practitioner who uses creative dance as a space for catharsis, self-reflection, and body awareness.
Through gentle and intentional movement, participants were invited to reconnect with their bodies without pressure or performance.
Not to move beautifully.
Not to do things perfectly.
But simply:
to arrive,
to listen,
and to allow the body to express what words sometimes cannot.
Throughout the session, participants explored several gentle practices, including:
- simple body mapping,
- movement as a medium of expression,
- grounding and regulation exercises,
- and post-movement reflection.
Each practice was designed to help participants reconnect with themselves in a slower and safer way.
Beginning with Voice and Reflection
The session began with a simple but personal question:
“What does grief mean to you?”
Participants recorded their own voice notes, sharing their understanding of loss, sadness, or emotions that still remained inside them.
There was no expectation to sound “right” or composed.
Only an invitation to be honest.
This process became a quiet moment of self-reflection allowing participants to hear themselves, perhaps in ways they had not before.
Participants were then invited to record another voice note directed toward themselves, speaking gently to the grief they were carrying.
For some, this became an emotional experience.
Sometimes, hearing our own voice can make us realize how much we have been holding alone.
Body Mapping and Awareness
Participants were also introduced to simple body mapping practices.
Through this activity, they were invited to notice:
Where does tension appear?
Which parts of the body feel heavy, numb, restless, or tired?
What emotions seem connected to certain sensations?
Rather than analyzing the body intellectually, participants were encouraged to simply observe and acknowledge what was present.
This practice helped participants understand that emotions are often experienced physically not only mentally.
Movement as Emotional Expression
The session then continued into grounding and movement exploration.
Participants listened again to their voice recordings and slowly allowed their bodies to respond through movement.
Some participants moved gently and slowly.
Some used stronger movements like stomping or shaking.
Others chose to stay still while focusing on their breath.
There was no choreography and no expectation to perform.
Movement became a medium for expression, release, and emotional processing.
For many participants, this experience highlighted how emotions can sometimes move more freely through the body than through words alone.
Learning Presence Through Movement
Participants also explored partnered movement exercises accompanied by the sound of the Empathic Drum Tongue.
Taking turns as stimulator and receiver, they practiced feeling, responding, and staying present with another person’s movement and energy.
This exercise became more than movement itself.
It became a practice of trust, co-regulation, and connection.
A reminder that healing does not always happen alone. Sometimes, it also happens through safe presence with others.
Reflection After Movement
After the movement exploration, participants were invited back into stillness and reflection.
They observed what had shifted inside themselves after allowing the body to move.
Some noticed their breathing becoming softer.
Some felt lighter emotionally.
Others became aware of emotions they had been suppressing for a long time.
These reflections reminded participants that understanding ourselves does not always come through talking endlessly about our experiences.
Sometimes, awareness emerges quietly after movement, after breath, and after simply giving the body permission to feel.
A Gentler Way to Come Back to Yourself
Session 3 of GROW became a reminder that healing does not always begin with having the perfect words.
Sometimes it begins with breathing, moving, grounding, and allowing ourselves to feel what has long been held inside.
GROW Batch 1 Session 3 was created as a space to slowly reconnect with the body, because often, the body holds stories that were never fully spoken.
Thank you to all participants who showed up, moved, reflected, and gave themselves space throughout this session.
Through GROW, Talk Mental Health Indonesia offers a community-based support group space for reflection, grief-informed healing, emotional awareness, body-based practices, creative expression, and meaningful human connection.
If you are carrying emotions that feel difficult to explain, feeling disconnected from yourself, or simply longing for a safer and more human space to pause and breathe, you are welcome here.
Because sometimes healing does not begin with having all the answers. Sometimes, it begins with realizing that you do not have to carry everything alone.
Follow Talk Mental Health Indonesia on Instagram @talkmentalhealth.id for upcoming GROW sessions, future batches, and other community wellbeing programmes. Detailed information about the program is available on Instagram and on the TMH.id support group page.
If you feel ready to join, you can register here: Open Call GROW Session.
Sometimes the process begins quietly.
With one breath.
One movement.
Or one moment of finally allowing yourself to feel.
